How much electricity do oil-filled radiators use?

B

bubbles

Guest
Hi, just had a shock when found my last ESB bill was about treble the usual.
My office is heated by storage heaters, which I find pretty useless; it's very hard to control the heat as the thermostat does not appear to have any effect on the temperature!

I am using one of these oil-filled rad. and presume that's why my bill is so high (plus, my previous bill was estimated).

How can I calculate electricity consumption to arrive at a cost per hour? It says 2000 Watts on the box.

I am interested because my neighbour is also complaining of high bills (although this is a first for me) and he does not use additional electric radiators.

thanks for replies.

regards

Bubbles
 
  • The heater has a 2KW rating.
  • The price (assuming domestic daytime rates - business and/or nightsaver rates may differ) of a "unit" of electricity (1KWh = KiloWatt Hour) is €0.122 including VAT
  • So the cost of running the heater is: 2KW x number of hours x €0.122
 
Thanks, Clubman.

What would we do without you?

I am going to get out pen and paper and do some calculations, and check the meter, if I can find it!

Nobody in the building seems to know where it is. Weird.

Regards

Bubbles
 
Re: Thanks, Clubman.

Oh - don't forget that ESB prices went up effective from January 2003 (standard unit charge up to [broken link removed] from [broken link removed] previously inc. VAT) although these should only filter through onto bills [broken link removed]. However this would not explain an ostensible 30% discrepancy in any case.
 
ESB

Bubbles,
I had similar issues with ESB bills.
I contacted them about why the estimated readings were so much lower(resulting in a whopper of a bill every 6-8 mths to catchup)
They told me that you can give them a meter reading and they will bill from last reading(estimated or actual) to the one you give them.
At least this way you will not get hit with a whopper of a bill and will know what the next bill will be.
Dav
 
Re: ESB

If you missed the meter reader (where the meter is indoors and not accessible externally) or your estimated bill is significantly out of whack then you can [broken link removed] or over the phone (hope that link is OK because it's not displaying for me at the moment!) and have the EBS reissue a corrected bill.
 
EBS vs ESB

Sometimes I do wish the EBS would supply electricity and get rid of that monopoly!!
Bear
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the above. It does look as if my higher than usual bill is a result of estimated bills for the last few months. I had not even noticed.

regards
Bubbles
 
Re: Thanks!

if you own the place you could consider switching over to night storage heating or else maybe central heating
 
night tariff

The system is already on night tariff and as I don't own it, installing central heating is not an option.

In any case, I don't know where a boiler, even a small gas one, could be located. There is no storage space whatsoever, half the cupboard space in the kitchen is made up of units with very weird shapes.

I use the appartment as an office so am not too bothered about it, but I don't know how people who live there manage to store their possessions!

I cannot understand how builders are given permission to build appartments without storage, and I mean, no storage at all.

regards
Bubbles
 
Re: night tariff

sorry ,i didn't read your post thoroughly the first time ,nsh should be fine for an office 9-5 setup if you have enough heaters for the size.they should be hot in the morning ,check the input is set to max and adjust the output to spread the heat throughout the day,the 'input' controls the electricity usage while the output is just a mechanical flap that lets the heat escape during the day,they should be fine for a 9-5 setup
if you have enough of them but no good for heat in the evening
 
input and output

Good idea and thanks.
There is a thermostat but it appears to have limited effect on regulating the room temperature. I'll have a go at the output dial instead.

regards
Bubbles
 
Re: input and output

For what it's worth the ESB have a brief overview of electric storage heating [broken link removed]. As far as I remember the room thermostat is supposed to control the background heating level for the room provided by the storage (as opposed to convection) heater part of the radiator or something like that while the input and output controls regulate the charging and discharging respectively of a specific radiator. To be honest I've always found regulation of storage heaters a bit of a hit and miss affair. When they're used in a Goldshield insulated domestic house it's not such a big deal because the insulation is very efficient and ensures that the house generally maintains a comfortable level of heat anyway. However I've worked in less efficiently insulated offices with storage heaters and that was another matter altogether! Brrr......
 
so the cost of running the heater is: 2KW x number of hours x €0.122

Actually this may not be the case if the heater is on a thermostat and consequently will not be running at full wattage all the time that it's switched on. Not sure how you calculate the usage in this case. However the calculations I outlined earlier at least give the worst case running costs.
 
energy costs of an oilfilled radiator

The formula given is correct:KW x hours x €s/kWh
The "hours in use" can be expressed in decimal units if the radiator has a timer or thermostat build in.For example a usage of half an hour would give us the calculation
2 kw x 0.5 hours x €s/kWh or for 10 minutes
2 kw x 0.167 x €s/kWh and so on.
 
Re: energy costs of an oilfilled radiator

But surely if the thermostat is dynamically switching the heater on and off in line with the environmental temperature then it may not be running at full wattage all of the time so the calcuations I originally laid out will only give the maximum/worst case cost?
 
energy/radiator

I am not sure about modulating oil filled radiators.Do they exist at all?As far as I am aware of these oil filled electric radiators switch on or off at the set power.You could have the setting "1" which uses say 1kW and the setting "2" using 2kW and so on.But that would not be modulating ,just on and off.Dimmers -like for example for a lamp- are quiet expensive for Wattages high as necessary for an oil filled electric radiator,they might be more expensive than the radiator itself.So usually it's "on" or "off".The rhythm/frequency would be dictated by the thermostat sensing the (room) temperature.Like in an oven used in the kitchen.But there might be newer ones on the market I haven't seen before.
 
Re: energy/radiator

OK - I get you now. That makes sense - the dial dictating the effective wattage used. Perhaps they don't include a thermostat in most or all cases as you say. I just thought that somebody mentioned that before. Thanks for the explanation.
 
Re: energy/radiator

"The rhythm/frequency would be dictated by the thermostat sensing the (room) temperature.Like in an oven used in the kitchen.But there might be newer ones on the market I haven't seen before."

You've lost me.

It's a bimetal switch, not a rheostat as in cooker rings. When the set temps is reached by the heater, the power is isolated(you don't pay). When it drops below the set temperature, the power is back on (you pay).

The only difference the 1KW or 2KW setting will give you is the speed at which the temperature will be reached.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top